This invention relates generally to protective gloves and more particularly to chemical-resistant protective gloves.
Polymers such as polychloroprene, acrylonitrile, natural or synthetic isoprene, and butyl rubber provide relatively inexpensive and useful materials for making protective gloves. Gloves can be made by injection molding or by dipping a glove former into a vat of such polymers.
Because polymers have different characteristics, it has in the past been found useful to make composite gloves of successive laminations of different materials. U.S. Pat. No. 5,459,880, for example, teaches that a glove with high strength and oil resistence can be made at a low cost by successively immersing a glove former in two different rubber latexes.
It is also known that some fluoroelastomeric materials, such as the commercially-available VITON.RTM. or TECHNIFLON fluoroelastomers, can be used to provide improved chemical resistance to a wide variety of toxic corrosive chemicals and solvents, radiation, and flammablity. U.S. Pat. No. 4,218,779 describes the desirability of using such materials as the outer layer of a protective glove.
Unfortunately, the cost and physical characteristics of many fluoroelastomeric materials make the conventional successive-immersion process impractical as a method for applying a fluoroelastomeric coating on a glove. Apparently unable to find a cost-effective way to add a thin layer of fluoroelastomeric material over a less-expensive polymeric base, some manufacturers have chosen to make gloves entirely of the more expensive fluoroelastomeric material.
Another problem with using fluoroelastomeric materials on gloves stems from the fact that the fluoroelastomeric materials tend to create a very smooth, slick surface. This surface reduces grip when handling wetted objects. The smooth, slick surfaces of such gloves also tend to adhere to one another when the gloves are packaged, making it difficult to subsequently separate the gloves. In order to overcome this as well as to allow the gloves to don more easily, most fluoroelastomer gloves are powdered inside.
There is a long-felt need for a cost-effective way to add a thin layer of fluoroelastic material over a polymer glove base, and for a fluoroelastomer-coated glove with a non-adhesive finish that will increase wet gripping and allow the gloves to be sold free of powder.